Before and After Alexander

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Before and After Alexander Page 23

by Richard A. Billows


  The crisis in the east was thus settled fairly quickly, and with great credit to Peithon and his boss Perdiccas; the situation in Greece proved much more tricky. When Antipater marched south with the home army to deal with the uprising, he was met in north central Greece by an Athenian and mercenary army commanded by Leosthenes, and defeated. Antipater barely managed to disengage his defeated army still intact, and took refuge behind the walls of the nearby city of Lamia, where he was obliged to stand a siege. As a consequence, this conflict is known to modern historians as the Lamian War. Antipater sent desperate messages to Asia Minor, to the Macedonian leaders there, calling for help. Two leaders heeded the call: Leonnatus in Hellespontine Phrygia ignored his orders from Perdiccas to conquer Cappadocia for Eumenes, and instead took the forces Perdiccas had given him for this purpose across the Hellespont into Europe and over into Macedonia. There he recruited additional troops and prepared to go to the rescue of Antipater. In addition Leonnatus established contact with Alexander’s full sister Cleopatra, widow of Alexander the Molossian. He proposed to marry her: he came of a princely house himself, and thought that with Cleopatra by his side he could make a play for the Macedonian throne. It all came to nothing when he moved south into Thessaly and was met by the Athenian army and defeated. Leonnatus died of his wounds, and Antipater—relieved from his siege at Lamia by Leonnatus’ entry into the fight—managed to collect the remnants of Leonnatus’ defeated force and retreat with them and his own army back to the safety of Macedonia.

  The other Macedonian leader who heeded Antipater’s call for help was Craterus, who was still lingering in Cilicia. He did not move at once because, concerned about Athenian naval power, he stayed to collect a great fleet from Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Cilicia, which he placed under the command of his officer Cleitus the White. Cleitus defeated the Athenian fleet in two great sea battles, at the island of Amorgos and in the Hellespont, ending Athenian naval power once and for all. Craterus was able to ferry his veteran army across to Macedonia safely, and there join up with Antipater. The joint armies of Antipater and Craterus, along with the troops Leonnatus had gathered, represented a great army indeed, and the two leaders prepared for a show-down battle with the Athenians and their allies in the spring of the following year, 322. The battle was fought at Crannon in Thessaly and, thanks to outstanding service from the Thessalian cavalry and the rest of the southern army, was fought to a draw. But a draw was as good as a victory to Antipater and Craterus. Immediately after the battle, allied contingents in the southern Greek army began to peel away and head for home, or even sue for peace on favorable terms. The Athenian coalition melted away, and the Macedonian leaders were able to advance southwards, pacifying the Greek states as they went, until they finally reached Athens in October 322. The Athenian democracy was ended and a pro-Macedonian oligarchic regime installed in its place.

  There were still mopping-up operations to be conducted, particularly against the Aetolians, but Antipater and Craterus were victorious, and had established an excellent partnership with each other. This was now cemented by a marriage alliance: Craterus married Antipater’s oldest daughter Phila. The two then considered their relations with Perdiccas. The latter had successes of his own to his name: frustrated at the failure of Antigonus and Leonnatus to obey his orders to conquer Cappadocia, he had come to Asia Minor himself, bringing the royal army. He invaded Cappadocia, defeated the forces of Ariarathes, and installed Eumenes as the new governor of the region, as he had planned. He then moved south and invaded eastern Pisidia, which like Cappadocia had not yet come under Macedonian rule. There too he was victorious, and the fall of 322 found him established in winter quarters in Pisidia with a greatly enhanced reputation. Antipater sent representatives to Perdiccas proposing a marriage alliance: Perdiccas would marry a second daughter of Antipater, named Nicaea, and thereby become the brother-in-law of Craterus at the same time. Thus the three great leaders, related by ties of marriage, could in future rule the Macedonian Empire on behalf of the kings as a triumvirate. That was clearly an excellent idea, promising stability to the empire, as no Macedonian leader could hope to stand up to these three and their forces, and Perdiccas promptly agreed … only to suffer almost immediately a case of buyer’s remorse. For at that very time there arrived letters from Olympias and Cleopatra, Alexander’s mother and sister, proposing that Perdiccas marry Cleopatra instead. Olympias loathed Antipater. Marriage to Cleopatra would mean a decisive break between Perdiccas and Antipater; but it offered Perdiccas the prospect, as uncle-by-marriage of the young king Alexander IV, of ruling the Macedonian Empire on his own, with Cleopatra and Olympias by his side, in the name of his young nephew.

  Here Perdiccas’ basic indecisiveness reared its head again. His good friend Eumenes, who was also a long-time friend of Olympias, urged Perdiccas to accept Cleopatra’s offer and marry her. But Perdiccas’ brother Alcetas, more cautious by nature, urged him to stand true to his agreement with Antipater and Craterus, and marry Nicaea. Unable to quite decide, Perdiccas gave encouragement to both ladies, with the result that both arrived in Asia Minor early in 321 expecting marriage. To complicate matters further, two more royal Macedonian ladies arrived at Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor around the same time, also in pursuit of a marriage: Philip’s oldest daughter Cynnane brought her young daughter Adea with the project of marrying her to the senior king Philip Arrhidaeus, no doubt expecting that as wife of the pliant Philip Adea could take control and rule in his name. Perdiccas sent his brother Alcetas with some troops to arrest these princesses, probably with the idea of sending them back to Macedonia. But Cynnane resisted and was killed in the violence that ensued. Alcetas’ own Macedonian soldiers then rebelled against him, horrified that a daughter of the great Philip had been killed. In order to quiet the uprising, Alcetas and Perdiccas were forced to agree to Adea marrying Philip: like her new husband, Adea then changed her name and took on the royal name Eurydice instead. For the moment Perdiccas was able to keep young Adea Eurydice under his control, but the situation was becoming fraught. Still undecided about his own future, Perdiccas established Cleopatra comfortably at Sardis and sent his friend Eumenes to keep her sweet, while himself receiving Nicaea and formally marrying her. It was clear to his entourage, however, that Cleopatra, and the prospects she opened up for him, was the one he really wanted. Things were heading towards a crisis.

  The crisis was precipitated by Antigonus and Ptolemy. Perdiccas was still angry at Antigonus’ refusal to invade Cappadocia, and summoned him to explain himself. Antigonus had no intention of justifying himself to a more junior officer, and no doubt had Meleager’s fate in mind. He collected his relatives, friends, and belongings, and fled to Macedonia on several Athenian ships, taking refuge with his good old friend Antipater. There he complained vociferously about Perdiccas’ actions; and he kept tabs via his friend Menander, the governor of Lydia, on Perdiccas’ relationship with Cleopatra, on which he reported to Antipater and Craterus. Ptolemy was pursuing an independent policy aimed at making Egypt his own realm. To do this, he played up his own connection to Alexander to portray himself as Alexander’s legitimate heir in Egypt: he built up Alexandria, the city which Alexander had formally founded but not waited to build. And when Alexander’s funeral cortege, with a lavish coffin and wagon it had taken more than a year to build, passed through Syria on its way to Macedonia, Ptolemy intercepted it with troops and carried it off to Egypt where Alexander was first buried in the old capital of Memphis but eventually moved to a magnificent purpose-built tomb in Alexandria itself. This was a direct affront to Perdiccas, who had intended to bring Alexander “home” to Macedonia for burial at the ancestral Argead tomb complex in Aegae, the old Macedonian capital. Perdiccas reacted by finally being decisive: he repudiated Nicaea and sent Eumenes to Cleopatra again to announce his (Perdiccas’) intention to marry her. That meant war with Antipater, Craterus, Antigonus, and Ptolemy. The “settlement” of Babylon was broken.

  The first War of the Diadoch
i (Successors of Alexander) did not last long. It was fought on three fronts, with different outcomes, though the overall winners were undoubtedly Antipater and his allies Antigonus and Ptolemy. Antipater and Craterus gathered their forces to march to and cross the Hellespont into Asia Minor to confront Perdiccas. Antigonus took a detachment of ships and sailed to the coast of Ionia, where he joined up with his friend Menander. He learned there of Perdiccas’ definitive decision to marry Cleopatra, and sent word to Antipater to hurry his invasion into Asia Minor. Ptolemy built up the defenses of Egypt along the easternmost Pelusiac branch of the Nile delta, and awaited events. With his usual indecision, Perdiccas summoned a council of his closest advisers to decide what to do: should he march south to punish Ptolemy, or should he march to the Hellespont to confront Antipater and Craterus? Rather typically, he selected the apparently easy option: he would deal with Ptolemy. He left a large force in Asia Minor under his friend Eumenes with orders to guard the Hellespont and not permit Antipater to cross; Alcetas, with another force, was instructed to co-operate with Eumenes, as was another Macedonian officer named Neoptolemus. Aristonous, finally, was sent with a detachment to take control of Cyprus, to deny its resources to his enemies and have it serve instead as an advance staging post for his own operations. And so Perdiccas marched through Syria and Palestine, with a fleet commanded by his brother-in-law Attalus accompanying him.

  Perdiccas’ confrontation with Ptolemy’s forces in Egypt was disastrous. Several attempts to force a crossing of the Nile were repelled with heavy losses, and the soldiers were particularly demoralized when Nile crocodiles collected in large numbers to feast on the bodies of the dead. When it became clear that Perdiccas did not know what to do next, a group of senior officers led by Peithon, Seleucus, and Antigenes, the commander of the Silver Shields (formerly Philip’s pezetairoi and then Alexander’s hypaspistai), confronted Perdiccas in his tent at night and assassinated him. When word of this reached him, Ptolemy crossed over the river and addressed the men of the royal army at a meeting. He expressed how sorry he was to have been forced into conflict with them and how much he regretted their losses; and he pledged to provide them with supplies and other aid. The men cheered him, and called for him to take up the regency of the kings now that Perdiccas was dead. Ptolemy, foreseeing conflict with Antipater and Antigonus if he took that post, declined. Two other senior officers—Peithon son of Crateuas and Arrhidaeus (not king Philip III Arrhidaeus but another Macedonian officer of that name)—were nominated to the post instead, for the time being. The remaining adherents of Perdiccas in the camp were seized and killed, including his unfortunate sister, and more than thirty others were condemned to death in absentia, including the fleet commander Attalus, Perdiccas’ brother Alcetas, and Eumenes. Then the army turned and marched back through Palestine towards Syria for a rendezvous with Antipater.

  Meanwhile, Antipater and Craterus had crossed the Hellespont unopposed: the forces that were supposed to prevent the crossing were in conflict with each other. Alcetas, angry at being subordinated to the non-Macedonian Eumenes, refused to co-operate with him and took his forces off to Pisidia in southern Asia Minor. Neoptolemus too resented having been placed under Eumenes and was in contact with Craterus, intending to switch sides. Far from opposing Antipater and Craterus at the Hellespont, therefore, Eumenes was forced to fight against his own supposed ally Neoptolemus, soundly defeating him and taking over his army. When Neoptolemus rode into Antipater’s camp with only a few dozen cavalry as escort to announce his defeat, a council of war was held. Antipater and Craterus decided to split their forces. Craterus would take his Macedonian veterans and, guided by Neoptolemus, would confront Eumenes and assure control over Asia Minor for his side. Antipater, meanwhile, would march south with his troops as fast as possible to assist Ptolemy; and Antigonus with his ships and a small force would proceed to Cyprus to seize that island.

  Craterus’ confrontation with Eumenes did not work out as planned. During the previous two years Eumenes had raised and trained a large force of Cappadocian cavalry, with which he confronted Craterus’ cavalry on one wing of the battle with orders to charge hell for leather and not give Craterus the chance to choose his own moment to engage. Eumenes distrusted the loyalty of the Macedonian element among his infantry, if they knew that they were going up against the beloved Craterus. He assured them that their opponent was only Neoptolemus with some new forces, and held his infantry back, determined to try to win with his cavalry. On one wing, Eumenes led part of his cavalry in a charge against enemy cavalry commanded by Neoptolemus. The two commanders met in person, and in a vicious fight Eumenes managed to kill Neoptolemus with his own hands, and emerge victor. On the other wing, Eumenes’ cavalry charged Craterus and his Macedonian cavalry and, in the midst of the fighting, Craterus’ horse stumbled and he had the misfortune to be thrown and then trampled by the Cappadocian horses. When Eumenes found him after the battle, he was dying: an ignominious death for the most highly regarded of Alexander’s officers. Craterus’ defeated forces offered to surrender to Eumenes and camped where they were for the time being. In the middle of the night, however, they decamped and marched away at full speed to rejoin Antipater. Antigonus, meanwhile, successfully took control of Cyprus, driving out Aristonous and his force, and then moved on to rejoin Antipater in northern Syria. As a result, Antipater with his own army and Craterus’ army, and joined by Antigonus’ force too, arrived at a Persian resort spot in northern Syria named Triparadeisus (literally “three gardens”) where the royal army under Peithon and Arrhidaeus was awaiting him. It was time for a new council of Macedonian leaders, and a new “settlement.”

  2. THE SETTLEMENT OF TRIPARADEISUS AND ITS UNRAVELING

  With Perdiccas and Craterus, the two younger generals most trusted by Alexander, both dead, a completely new arrangement of power in the Macedonian Empire was called for. There could be only one choice for the regency: Antipater. As by far the most senior commander, right-hand man of Philip, viceroy of Macedonia throughout Alexander’s reign, revered by everyone, he had no rival. A brief upset was caused by the young Eurydice asserting her right to rule in her husband Philip’s name: many of the soldiers admired her spirit and her royal birth. When Antipater attempted to assert control a riot threatened, but order was quickly restored by the intervention of Antigonus and Seleucus, both huge and physically imposing men. Antigonus had a squadron of cavalry escort the aged Antipater to safety, and a council of all the main Macedonian leaders was then summoned in Antipater’s camp. Eurydice was made to understand that as a woman she must stay quiet and obey; Antipater was formally acknowledged as the regent of the kings and so ruler of the empire; and a new division of powers was put into effect.

  A simplifying factor was that Egypt no longer had to be considered: it belonged to Ptolemy. He had governed it successfully for several years now, had built up his own army there, and had defended it effectively from Perdiccas’ attack. There was no question of trying to interfere with him. One thing Antipater also made clear from the beginning was that he had no intention of staying in Asia. He would be returning to Macedonia as soon as possible, and would oversee the empire from there. This meant that he would need a strong leader to act as his lieutenant in Asia, overseeing the governors and the running of imperial affairs there. There could be little doubt on whom the choice would fall for this role: Antigonus was the next most senior leader, he had independent successes to his name, he was a close friend of Antipater, and he would certainly not tolerate anyone being placed above him. He was, therefore, appointed general with oversight of the Asian provinces, and also given the specific task of finishing the war against Perdiccas’ surviving supporters, Alcetas and Eumenes, who could not be forgiven for the death of Craterus. To fulfill this task and these responsibilities, Antigonus was given command of the royal army most recently led by Perdiccas, and to keep an eye on him Antipater appointed his own son Cassander to be Antigonus’ second-in-command. Along with the royal army, Antigonus
was also to have personal oversight of the kings, which meant that he was effectively designated as the aged Antipater’s successor in the regency: for so long as Antigonus had the kings, it was obvious no one but he could take the regency when Antipater died.

  Thought was then given to governorships of the provinces. Many existing governors were simply confirmed, but there were a number of officers who needed to be rewarded, and a number of close associates of Perdiccas who needed to be deposed. The two temporary regents, Peithon and Arrhidaeus, were rewarded with governorships over Media and Hellespontine Phrygia respectively. Peithon already had experience in the east, in his victorious campaign against the “rebellious” Greek colonists, and from the powerful satrapy of Media could exercise oversight of the further east; Hellespontine Phrygia had no governor since the death of Leonnatus. The other two assassins of Perdiccas, Seleucus and Antigenes, were granted the governorships of Babylonia and Susiane. Antigenes, however, remained commander of the Silver Shields for the time being, with a special task of convoying treasure to be deposited at Cyinda in Cilicia, meanwhile ruling Susiane through a deputy. With this business settled, Antipater set off with his army to return to Macedonia, and Antigonus with the royal army marched with him, headed for Asia Minor and the war against Eumenes and Alcetas. Along the way, friction arose between Antigonus and Cassander, leading to a revision of some key arrangements. Cassander was clearly not suited to be Antigonus’ second-in-command, and he persuaded his father that it would be unwise to leave the kings under Antigonus’ charge. Antipater therefore took the kings and a large portion of the royal army, leaving Antigonus eight thousand of his own younger Macedonian soldiers instead. With the kings and Cassander now in his entourage, Antipater crossed over to Europe and returned to Macedonia. Antigonus with his smaller but more manageable and reliable army gave thought to fighting Eumenes.

 

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